


Hunger

by Immicolia



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Genre: Coping with trauma, Gen, Yusaku's... not great at it but he's doing the best he can
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-11
Updated: 2018-05-11
Packaged: 2019-05-05 03:16:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14608080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Immicolia/pseuds/Immicolia
Summary: Being hungry tends to stir up bad memories in Yusaku’s mind.





	Hunger

**Author's Note:**

> This is short but I got this terrible idea in the middle of the night and had to see it through. Given my general fondness for angst and characters that are barely functioning disasters it was only a matter of time before I wound up subjecting this fandom to my nonsense.

Yusaku doesn't like being hungry. Even the slightest rumbling complaint of his stomach is enough to send his mind reeling back into that room. To nights where he was so hungry he could barely think, which only made him duel worse, which only meant that he would go hungry again. All in a merciless circle that was occasionally broken when he managed to get lucky enough to win.

The memories leave him shaken and breathless and eventually he starts keeping snacks stashed everywhere. In his bedside table, his desk, his school bag, the console room on the truck. No matter what there is always something close at hand that, at the very least, will take some of the edge off. Keep the memories at bay.

The very first time Yusaku cracked open a bag of chips in the console room Kusanagi had complained. Muttering about the possibility of getting crumbs in the equipment, and Yusaku can't help but wonder what his expression had been like at that moment. Because almost immediately Kusanagi's voice trailed off into nothing and he forced a smile, going on to say that it didn't matter. His voice pitched low and soothing, as if Yusaku was an exceptionally skittish animal (and maybe in some ways he was) about to bolt or lash out.

Yusaku doesn't bring anything that might leave crumbs or sticky fingerprints into the console room anymore. Instead going with hard candies and gum, nothing that is particularly filling but enough to trick his brain into thinking he's full until they take a break for dinner.

The worst is when he comes out of long sessions in Link Vrains.

He'll spend hours in there, hours where he's not aware of anything but what the VR decides to make him feel. He doesn't feel tired beyond the strain of a duel, and he certainly doesn't feel hungry.

Not until he logs out. Then he's ravenous and it's as bad as it was ten years ago even though it shouldn't be. Even though it's only a faint discomfort his mind is howling at him that he needs to eat. He needs to eat _now_ because if he doesn't he won't get _anything_. He'll starve. He's starving already. Breathing coming in ragged little gasps until he manages to get something, anything, into his stomach. Devouring whatever food he manages to get his hands on like a wild thing.

Kusanagi makes him take breaks now. Insists that he log out every hour or so to move around in reality for a bit and if he finds it odd that Yusaku wolfs down a handful of chips or a cookie (just to be sure, absolutely sure, that his stomach --his mind-- won't be screaming at him the next time he logs out) while he paces around outside he doesn't comment on it.

It's a complicated chain of "I know that you know that I know" neither of them will ever speak of. Yusaku isn't the sort to talk about what he went through any more than he has to and Kusanagi isn't about to intentionally pry. What little he's gleaned from Yusaku's actions(reactions) is more than enough.

Kusanagi will be considerate and Yusaku will be thankful and neither of them will acknowledge either fact.


End file.
